Pablo Acosta " El Zorro de Ojinaga " Part 1

Pablo Acosta, was one of the top narcotic trafficking Godfathers of Mexico until his demise, he was also the friend, business partner, and mentor of Amado Carrillo Fuentes "El Senor de los Cielos" or "the Lord of the Skies". He moved incalculable tonnes of Marijuana and Heroin which constituted the majority of his illegal trade, in his heyday he was moving 60 tonnes of Cocaine a year for the Colombian Cartels with a street value today of $3 billion US a year, along a 200 mile stretch of border that he controlled round the big bend national park area. He died during a confrontation with Government Forces in 1987.

Reporter: Otis B Fly-Wheel

The Ojinaga Plaza
The current plaza system utilized by the major cartels in Mexico today, developed from and owe their roots to the Ojinaga Plaza. The first " Plaza Boss" of Ojinaga was Manuel Carrasco "La Vibora", this was before the term had been used for the first time. The one time campesino and drug mule, made a few extra bucks delivering small quantities of heroin for his wife's uncle.

His wife's uncle was Domingo Aranda, an independent drug trafficker who sold to the Chicago Mafia. Aranda was a small time trafficker compared to the generations after, that put flesh on the bones of, the brainchild of the corrupt Mexican Government that is the Plaza system, the modern day Drug Capo took "ownership" of the Ojinaga Plaza.

Carrasco had his sights set on bigger things than Domingo Aranda. He realised that after establishing USA contacts of his own, that if he locked down the interstate routes, he could move a lot of weight and put his own Boss and relative Aranda out of business.

Carrasco's dreams of running things were soon dealt four aces, as he shot and burned to death Domingo Aranda on the shores of the "Big River" close to Ojinaga, Chihuahua. Carrasco was a cold hearted bastard, and stood and watched his wife's uncle burn to death while drinking beers.

As far as burials go Arandas was not like the modern day gaudy affairs, his killers simply kicked sand over his body which barely covered it and just sauntered away.

Carrasco's sense of self preservation was lacking a certain something, after taking power from Aranda, he murdered someone who had come to collect a debt, and was family of Pedro Aviles. Carrasco, thought if he killed the collector he could wipe the debt by saying he had paid the collector, and that he had no idea where he was or what had happened to him subsequently.

Carrasco, while in Doctors surgery being treated for a gunshot wound sustained in a gunfight, managed to get into a major gun battle in the doctors surgery with security forces, and took this opportunity to shoot the debt collector, who had attended the hospital with Carrasco.

Pedro Aviles put a "green light" on him and the entire Municipal Police Force in Ojinaga. Word got out that two plane loads of sicarios from Pedro Aviles Guadalajara cartel were heading to Ojinaga to kill Carrasco and wipe out the Municipal Police Force.

The entire Municipal Police Force, with their families fled north of the border to escape the Sicarios, while Carrasco, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, also fled rather than face retribution that was shortly arriving.

The Government wanted their plaza money and so made immediate demands for the usual amount from Carrascos second in command, Martin "El Shorty" Lopez. This had the effect of promoting him to Plaza Boss.

Lopez a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, had grown up in Odessa. Previous owners of the Ojinaga Plaza were locals. Lopez was a different kind of character to Carrasco and Aranda. Whether by dint of nature, or by design, he could be compared in some respects to Jesus Malverde from Mexico, the narco traffickers patron saint, or England's Robin Hood.

He operated in the San Carlos region, and genuinely helped many of the people in the area. He gave gifts, but not Ferrari's and luxuries, but tractors, irrigation pumps, fertilizers, as well as help paying peoples bills.

But like many traffickers both old and new, they had no intention of dwelling for second to think of the pain and hopelessness, crime and violence that their Mexican black tar heroin brought to American cities. The traffickers saw this trade as supply and demand, simple economic theory, black and white with no shades of gray.

At this time, Pablo Acosta was languishing in Jail in the United States, serving an eight stretch in Leavenworth for heroin possession. Acosta made important connections in the Texas prison that would prove extremely fortuitous later on in Pablo's career.

It was towards the end of the 60's when Mexico's corrupt PRI government dreamt up the plaza system, to grease their palms with cash, and the lackeys below them who wanted to get their snouts in the trough too.

They thrashed out the details, and in truth the system today is a much more watered down variant of the original. The "owner" of the Plaza, or top capo in his area, such as Guadalajara and Culiacan, would make a monthly payment of $100,000.00 to the designated collector, usually a Police Chief or High ranking Military commander.

They in turn would arrange for a transfer of the funds, under armed guard, to their superiors minus a small commission. Most people suspect that at the top of this chain of corruption and deceit, killings and impunity rests the President of Mexico himself.

Those above the "owner" of the plaza were able to render services in the form of military and police escorts for drugs to the border area, arresting or disappearing competitors. But, like goodfellas, you have to come up with the cash every month, " your house burnt down? fuck you pay me", and it better be on time.

The only way to find out if you are able to cope with this kind of pressure, i.e. lack of performance = torture and death, is to sink or swim. Pablo Acosta thrived in the pressure cooker environment of drug trafficking, he pioneered the operations of the plaza system, he started thinking in terms of international scale logistics, fostering links with politicians, and like previous relatively successful drug traffickers like "Lola La Chata", he knew who to bribe and exactly how much was required, and his successful business model was soon taken up by traffickers on both side of the border.

Word soon spread of how Pablo was "taking care of business", and ears were pricking up in the top echelons of the Guadalajara Cartel, where Pedro Aviles ruled. Pablo started making a lot of men rich, and that was when his problems started in their infancy...

The Acosta family
Pablo came from a large family that were migrant farm workers for many generations, scratching out a living from the Chihuahua and Sonoran deserts bordering the United States. Each year the large and extended family would send the men out into the fields taking those children who were old enough for the manual labor.

The younger children stayed at home with the women, including Pablo's mother Dolores. The Acosta men went to Texas and New Mexico, with Pablo learning from his father Cornelio, on farms around Fort Stockton, Odessa and Lovington.

Pablo had been on the migrant work trail with his father for 9 years by 1958, and had begun to get in trouble. He was a genuinely likable character by all accounts, but after a drink was quite happy to fight anyone at the drop of hat.

Pablo arrested for fighting while drunk smirking at the camera

The Acosta family, had a blood feud with another Mexican farming family named Baiza, like most blood feuds the reprisal killings had been going on for generations. And so it happened that in October of 1958 when Pablo was in a bar called Sandy's Lounge having a drink with his father, someone came into the bar, and told Cornelio, that there was someone waiting to talk to him outside.

Cornelio went outside the bar. Pablo heard a gunshot from inside the bar, and rushed outside to find his father laying face up in the gravel with a bullet hole in his forehead. A car screeched away and Pablo raced after it, but could only get close enough to read the number plate.

Pablo went to the Fort Stockton Police, and they traced the vehicle to a certain Pablo Baiza. He was arrested and brought to trial where the details of the two families long running feud were made public before the Court.

Pablo Baiza's Lawyer argued that, it was expected of Pablo Baiza to carry on and avenge his family in the feud. They Lawyer explained that the feud had taken a turn for the worse when one of Pablo's relatives killed a Baiza, then hung him up in an abandoned adobe house, and locked two hungry dogs in there.

Pablo Baiza was found guilty of murder with Malice Aforethought, and the court handed down a sentence of 5 years probation! As he had served 3 months in prison since waiting to come to trial, he was released from Court, which obviously did nothing to quash the family feud.

Pablo Baiza was killed a short time later in a different Fort Stockton bar.

Escalation
Pablo's violent behavior when drunk took a turn for the worse in 1964, as there was little to do for Latinos in Fort Stockton, as Latinos were not welcome at most establishments at the time. There were a couple of Latino bars, which Pablo used to frequent.

As usual after a few beers, Pablo's aggression got the better of him, an argument over a girl led Pablo to offer the guy a fight outside the town limits. When Pablo got into his car the other guy fired at him, the bullet or bullet fragments wounding him in the cheek.

He raised his .22 rifle and opened fire, wounding one of the men. The local press had a field day after the exchange of gunfire.

Pablo had a reduction in the charges against him to illegal use of a firearm and was given a ninety day sentence.

Not long after Pablo was busted on his first drug mule trip with heroin taped to his arms, he was handed an eight stretch form the Pecos Federal District Court.

He made important contacts in both the Latino and Caucasian prison inmate communities, he already had contacts south of the border with his black tar heroin supply from Manuel Carrasco. With his new contact north of the border he had everything he needed to setup a drug trafficking network that would rival any in Mexico.

He left prison 3 years early for good behavior in 1973, and 3 years after he had a run in with two USA anti-narcotics agent in a drug deal gone bad and had to flee south of the border to Ojinaga.

1976

Pablo's return to Mexico was to a time of uncertainty in the Ojinaga Plaza. Despite the fact that Manuel Carrasco had fled, Pablo saw this as an opportunity. He love the excitement of smuggling drugs, and at the time, the excitement it gave this farm worker was his main motivating factor and not the money as at the time he wasn't moving any serious weight.

Martin El Shorty Lopez had inherited the Ojinaga Plaza, and as he and Pablo were buddies from Leavenworth prison, they met in Ojinaga like old friends. Lopez set Pablo to work straight away.

Lopez at this time was earning a lot of money, he had all the trappings of a Narco, big ranch with an airstrip, vehicles, storage facility for drugs, he could afford to buy anything he wanted pretty much.

Lopez decided that, unlike Carrasco, he would go with a hearts and mind campaign, the more of the local population he looked after, the more eyes he had between himself in Santa Elena and Ojinaga the better.

Lopez would go shopping in Ojinaga and buy huge amounts of groceries and other sundries, and on the way back from Ojinaga would stop at Adobe houses dropping of food to the hard done by. The San Carlos area of around 2000 inhabitants were all beneficiaries of Lopez's altruism.

This though was a two way street, as the inhabitants farmed, fruit, vegetables, livestock, they went to the USA as export goods accompanied by drugs in the trucks. Lopez found it easy, some days he would stand on the Mexican side of the river at big bend, and various buyers would come to the USA side and ask " are you a messkin?", and Lopez would sell them as much marijuana and heroin as they wanted.

Lopez was enjoying life and his patronage of the surrounding areas, but Manuel Carrascao who had been hiding out in Chihuahua City, seethed at the success of Shorty Lopez which he believed was rightfully his.

He put word out that Martin Lopez time was up, and that he was going to take care permanently of the usurper Ojinaga Plaza Boss, and reclaim what he saw as rightfully his

Shorty Lopez used to drive to Ojinaga and back from his ranch high up the Sierra Ponce of the Santa Elena with a bodyguard and sometimes alone.

Shorty used to deliver his plaza fee to the Police Chief at Chihuahua City, on this particular day he happened to run into Manuel Carrasco. After an exchange of pleasantries, which were mostly death threats to each other, they parted ways.

Shorty Lopez's men told him he should have talked to Manuel and worked things out, but Lopez like Carrasco before was feeling the power of being "untouchable" as Plaza Boss.

Carrasco made the arrangement and set up an ambush for Lopez, he knew the return route Lopez would take over the rough mountain roads of the Sierra Ponce with its Limestone cliffs.

Carrasco's hit men were waiting for Lopez over a rise in the road, meaning Lopez wouldn't see the ambush until it was too late. However, Carrasco had not figured in that everyone in the area were beneficiaries of Lopez's altruism, and were his un-official halcones.

Lopez was warned about the ambush, but Lopez being what he was, decided he would take on his ambushers. There was only him and his driver/bodyguard.

They were approaching the ambush point, when Lopez got out of the pickup with his AR15 rifle and some spare mags, and climbed onto the rear bed of the vehicle. His driver had his pistols ready, cocked, with the safeties off ready to go.

As his vehicle came over the rise, one of the ambushers stepped out in police uniform and said " Stop! Judicial", he saw that Lopez was not in the vehicle. Lopez then jumped up and fired a burst at the Sicario, who fell.

Lopez then opened up on other men who were crashing out of the mesquite brush, and downed several of them, then all hell opened up and Lopez's pickup was hit by gunfire from three sides. Lopez's driver jumped out of the pickup and was immediately hit and fell, Shorty Lopez ran back up the track firing back at the ambushers.

One of the Sicarios took aim with his .45 and shot Lopez in the back, dropping him like a stone.

The Sicarios then drove a heavy vehicle over his body again and again before finally driving over his head to put his out of his misery. A Sicario then chopped at his skull with such force that he severed his head from the hair line.

Pieces of the Shorty skull were then distributed to all sicarios and they were made to wear them around their necks on chains, as a lesson to all what the price of perfidy was.

Carrasco could not take back the Plaza with a Guadalajara Cartel green light on him.

The Candidates
After the death of Lopez, who funeral had been attended by a lot of people, locals, in whose eyes, the charity Lopez showed absolved him of most of his crimes, came to pay their respects.

With Carrasco out of the picture and shorty dead, that left only three people from the area who had the necessary prior involvement and nous to become the plaza boss.

Pablo Acosta, Victor Sierra and Rogelio Gonzalez. All three of them knew that if they took the Jefe position, the piso for the plaza would have to be paid. Pablo did not volunteer, as he knew what it would entail. Eventually Victor Sierra was the dubious winner of the title.

He took it upon himself to deliver the piso to the Police commander in Chihuahua as had Carrasco and Lopez before him, the Police chief was more than a little surprised that Sierra had appeared from nowhere.

He got his guys to torture Sierra for three days straight to see if he had the "huevos" to resist torture and therefore not give up the Police commander if he was captured.

Sierra passed the test and was given control of the plaza. Though by dint of his torture which included cattle prods to the testicles, for 6 months after Sierra could not "stand to attention" for his many girlfriends.

Victor remained in charge of the Ojinaga Plaza for three years, nobody really knows when Pablo took over the plaza from Victor Sierra, and it was done by osmosis rather than a coup d'etat. Pablo went on behind the scene fostering connections to important people in the Mexican judiciary so when the time came he would be ready to take over.

He did not have to go through the same ordeal with the Chihuahua Police Commissioner as did Victor Sierra. Everyone found out for sure, that Pablo was in charge in 1981 when an agent of the US Clayton McKinney travelled to Mexico to meet a gringo pilot that had done some favours for the Mexican intelligence agencies.

During the interview the agent heard men outside the office arguing, and one said to the other " but Pablo said to let him go", and a few minutes later an officer came in and said to McKinney that the interview would have to stop, and McKinney was asked to leave.

Pablo had started paying the Plaza piso to people in Mexico City, when the Federal Police launched a new headquarters in Ojinaga, Pablo then paid his piso to the local commander and he passed it up the chain of corrupted officials.

Pablo was smarter and quicker witted than those before him, later it turned out that, when the new Federal Police force was made in Ojinaga, Pablo had handpicked the officer recruits from his own men.

One of Pablo's most important contacts was Ismael Espudo Venegas. Though not Mexican, he was from the USA originally, he had a high post in the Internal Police of the Public Ministry. He furnished Pablo and his Lieutenants with official identification cards from the Public Ministry, Federal, and Municipal Police, which gave them carte blanche to operate with impunity.

He also arranged with the local forces for busts to happen, but these were busts of his own product. He was growing Sensemilla which grew large flower heads, the rest of the plant was not used. So come harvest time, Pablo's men would harvest the flower tops, then invite the Federal Police to bust the now useless plant stems and leaves. Which gave good press for the local Federal Police every year. Even today if you watch some of the videos of army chopping down marijuana plants they "discovered", you can plainly see they have no flower heads on and so have already been harvested.

Friend or Foe?
Fermin Arevalo was an independent with links to opium, heroin and marijuana traffickers in Sinaloa. His two sons were also involved in his business and ran it for him when he spent time in prison. His son Lili taking the prominent role.

When Pablo took over the Ojinaga Plaza, Fermin was taking being passed over for the Plaza very badly indeed. They were friends previously, their families mixing at events with their children playing together. Indeed they had served time together in Chihuahua State Penitentiary, and Fermin had lent money to Pablo to pay for a Lawyer to get him out of prison.

At this time Pablo was still relatively unknown outside of Ojinaga, moving small weight just enough to keep himself and his family fed and watered. Fermin was moving more weight and often gave drugs to Pablo on credit, and vice versa. They had an understanding.

This understanding broke down fairly quickly after Pablo had a load busted and suspected Fermin's son Lili of giving up the load to the USA authorities. Pablo had needed to get three Cessna loads of marijuana to Texas in a single night. Rogelio Gonzalez was to be the pilot, and he was to land on a small tarmacked road at night. He would be met by a ground crew that included Pablo's brother.

Pablo watched Rogelio take off into the night with the first load, when he didn't return presently Pablo began to worry. As Rogelio had landed, he was met by two crews, Pablo's and one from the DEA. The DEA had been waiting close to the landing site after receiving information about the incoming load.

Rogelio, who normally stayed in the plane as the drugs were unloaded, had actually got out this time. As the DEA agents pounced and shouted warnings, Rogelio pressed himself against the fuselage of his plane and backed away.... straight into his own propeller, which according to the DEA agents split him in half from the top of the head to mid abdomen. One of Pablo's crew was shot dead, and 6 were arrested including Pablo's brother Juan.

Pablo found out what had happened, he had lost a plane, his pilot dead, his brother and one third of a load of marijuana, 5 of his men, vehicles used by the ground crew. Pablo felt the loss keenly.

Pablo found out there was an outstanding debt owed to Rogelio Gonzalez, and that it was Lili Arevalo that owed it. The debt had been given over as security in the form of a souped up pickup. Which Lili had retrieved from Rogelio's property before Pablo had even found out about the incident with Rogelio, from his sources both sides of the border. While this in itself was not evidence enough to act, Pablo knew things were turning sour in his relationship with the Arevalo's.

Some time later, Pablo arranged a deal through Lili Arevalo with a cousin of Pablo's in Texas. The load was delivered, Pablo's cousin had delivered the money to Lili personally. Lili claimed he had never been paid for the drugs and so didn't owe Pablo anything.

Pablo then kidnapped his own cousin and brought him to Ojinaga. His cousins sons also went of their own volition as they had been there when the money was delivered. Pablo sent them in a vehicle with two of his men to see if the could identify the man to whom they gave the money.

Lili was instantly identified they moment they set eyes on him. What happened next would have profound consequences for everyone, and led to what the DEA called the "Arevalo Wars".

Pablo's men sped around the block and dropped off the two sons of Pablo's cousin. Then they returned to the bar where Lili and his brother were buying ice creams. Pablo's men opened fire, hitting Lili multiple times, Lupe his brother was hit in the liver and fell into the gutter. Pablo's man Marco stepped out and shot Lili in the head with his .45.

An acquaintance of Fermin notified him about the shooting of his sons, he asked Fermin who did it. Fermin knew who had done it, and with a steely resolve swore to avenge the death of his son.

A reckoning at El Salto
Hector, Pablo's younger brother, talked to Pablo about the situation with the Arevela's. If the feud didn't stop a lot more people would die and get hurt. Pablo could either try and talk it out or shoot it out. Pablo chose the former.

He went out with four men and staked out the Arevela ranch known as "El Salto". They watched the property for two days baking in the sun during the day. When Pablo was sure that Fermin was at the ranch he drove down to the ranch house.

Fermin's wife answered the door to Pablo alone, no sight of Fermin though Pablo knew he was inside. Fermin's wife could hardly contain her anger, and Pablo genuinely wanted to come to a deal with the Arevalo's.

Pablo offered his .45 pistol with the safety off and a round chambered, to Fermin's wife and asked her to shoot him if it would put an end to the feud. Pablo's men looked on nervously as he passed her the gun. She no doubt wanted to shoot him, but probably thought better of the reprisals that his men would take out on her and her family inside the house.

Fermin's maid came to the door and whispered to Fermin's wife, she now seemed to be stalling Pablo, and he rightfully thought that Fermin was somewhere close, setting up an ambush. Fermin's wife remonstrated with Pablo for killing her son Lili who she claimed was just a boy. After an hour, Pablo left the widow with a parting shot "tell Fermin if he doesnt want to end this feud, we are gonna screw him over real good".

Pablo had his men in two vehicles, there were two routes out of the ranch and Pablo took the one he thought Fermin would not choose to ambush him on. He sent his other men down the other route.

Pablo's vehicle had reached the cattle grid on the road, when he noticed a truck heading towards him, driven by one of the ranch managers on El Salto. Pablo thought Fermin may be in the vehicle and that they should stop it, when Fermin launched his ambush. He had been waiting in a ditch by the side of the cattle grid, with a ranch hand opposite him in a ditch on the other side.

Both Fermin and ranch hand opened up with automatic weapons, in the back of the vehicle shards of glass flew into the faces of Pablo and his brother Pedro, they both ducked when bullets grazed the head of Pablo and slammed into the bullet proof jacket worn by Pedro.

Fermin fired until his assault rifle was empty, big mistake, this gave Pedro the instant he needed to engage with his own weapon. In a scene reminiscent of the bank shootout in "Heat", Pedro fired from inside the pickup through the windscreen, the first burst hit Fermin, the second burst hit the ranch hand and the third burst he fired at the truck that had stopped on the other side of the cattle grid.

The ranch manager jumped out of the truck and aimed to fire at Pablo's pickup, one of Pedro's bullets hit him in the head and killed him instantly. Pablo climbed out of the riddled pickup, blood streaming down his face, with his men, they looked for a third attacker in the trees but only found his weapon, Zacarias, one of Pablo's men in the truck had had a relative, a Police chief, killed by Fermin and was about to exact his revenge. He drew his knife ripped Fermin open from the lower abdomen to the sternum, the bone in the centre of the ribs that protects the heart.

Another one of Pablo's men finished Fermin off with another burst of gunfire.

Later, several different versions of how Fermin died were heard but were embellishments. One was that, Fermins wedding veg, had been cut off and then offered to his wife. Another was that after Fermin had been ripped open, and disemboweled, his body cavity had been filled with rocks, and then dragged behind a vehicle until it was pretty much unrecognizable as a human being.

None of the embellishments were true, but they made good rumours and consolidated the fear that people had of Pablo. Fermins autopsy, confirmed the cut to his body, and 21 bullet wounds. Those being the only injuries.

Pablo and his men returned immediately to the El Salto ranch. Once there for the second time he kidnapped Fermin's wife and maid. He drove back to Ojinaga, stopping to show the widow Fermins body.

Not long after the rest of the Arevalos either moved to Presidio or Houston. Fermins wife stayed in Ojinaga, and she made a criminal complaint against Pablo. Pablo had to pay 20 milion pesos to get the arrest warrants for him and his brother overturned.

Pablo acosta was murdered by the DEA IN CAHOOTS WITH POLICIA FEDERAL COMMANDER Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni, but DFS AGENT RAFAEL AGUILAR GUAJARDO TOOK OVER...--Then amado carrillo fuentes got aguilar guajardo, by then it was grupo atracomulco and don neto fonseca carrillo, while in califa miguel angel felix gallardo set up the arellanos, with grupo atracomulco again, headed by jorge hank rohn and TAESA airlines...--the CIA apparently was working with el chapo under the table all the time for rafael caro quintero and el mayo, nobody wants to give up "their turf" but they can't talk about it openly, they are all full of shit...

Lets say you have a town with a border crossing, lets say Juarez/El Paso. If you want to traffic drugs through the border, and not get arrested you need to pay bribes to the Police, Army, Government.

These bribes protect you from arrest, and give you prior warning of arrest from external agencies, and foreign governments.

The bribes are paid monthly and passed up the chain.

The plaza system is like buying the rights to be the sole operator of a particular business in a particular area. You are buying the rights to monopolise.

A huge amount of money is pumped into the Mexican economy this way, that money is spent and recycled into the economy. Also drug dealers have to legitimise their money. So they launder it through apparently normal businesses, as that money is registered, they have to pay tax on it.

The Mexican drug machine recycles nearly 30 billion US a year into the Mexican economy. Second only to Pemex. The Mexican government could not survive without that money going into the economy. They know it, the drug dealers know it, law enforcement knows it.

Thanks Otis! I really appreciate it! Very well explained! So it's just when the government helps protect the drug kingpin of the area as long as they pay the taxes/fees due and the government helps protect them from rival cartel intrusion also? This is called a plaza system? Thanks again Otis! I'm a junior in college studying transnational crime and criminal justice. Altnough, I seemed to have learned more through BB than anything else.

The "mexican drug machine" does nothing for the mexicans or the mexican economy, about 90% of the money generated goes to offshore and american banks and investors that use it to buy american industries, and export them to china or other countries, including some in mexico, that pay very lowly wages ---in all the saliva exchanges with all the "governments" involved in the kissy kissy, mexico always loses or gets the shitty end of the stick, while some Mexican Crap-o-crats get some juicy kickbacks, the mexican people just get smiles painted on their faces like that of the ayotzinapa student, Mondragon, or an ass full of bullets, courtesy of the US government magnanimity...--Pablo Acosta, OK, report, ok--"the mexican drug machine..."comment STINKS OF BULLSHIT...

3:03amIf had a 'sayko' in my real life try to extort money from me here in the USA about 16 years ago. He was taken care of and I was lol-ing hard after the whole ordeal. I've also been through worse and it all happened in the USA not Mexico.

This is a great story people just don't understand who really puts a plaza boss it's the government that's picks a plaza boss and puts him in that position chapo mayo and all the other traffickers have all bosses the government that's who they have to report to!!!!!!!

Think of it like a board of directors appointing a CEO. The Government is the board of directors and the plaza boss is the incoming CEO. He needs to be interviewed by the directors, but its the game he brings to that gets him the job

Solid explanation on the plaza ceo for sure. Not about Pablo Acosta, but any thoughts on the chances that el Chapo's last arrest were because some government higher ups wanted a new ceo... Hurry up on Part 2!

Great Book. Totally intrigued. Especially since I live in the Big Bend. Who has the plaza now? I talked to many people who were there at that time of Pablo Acosta. I was recently informed the "Plaza" was small time, but if you had the "The Square" you were someone to be reckoned with. This was the first time I have heard of the Square. Any Input?

Wow!, great article, well written and researched!. My only concern is how the durg corrupting chain "stops" when entering the US, we talk about the "corrupt Mexican Government" chaon that might go up to the president, but the drug has to be sold in America, mostly by US citizens/authorities. I don't buy the 22,000 yearly gun "accidents" (added to the 18,500 "official" murders make 40,500 murders), I will think that the numbers are fixed to the convenience of the US government in it's duty to offer "security" to the people. I don't know if you can keep up the good work and do research north of the border, nor if it is safe for you.

Can bb do a story on los chachos y el texas before los zetas ran laredo.in the 70s and 80s lots of killings happened between different independant capos for control of laredo.i think it would be a good story.please look into it otis or whoever has the chance.thanks really appreciate bb for the consistent work.

Whatever happened to havana pura p@rr@ndero n mako?nowadays these commentators aint cutting it for me.ex.el morronis de la palma. Gadejo. jose aka josie lopez.wasnt there a guy who said he was cartel hitman on here a long time ago?sorry i been on here too long i just dont have a name.but i can tell who knows real "cartel info" from fake for the most part.saludos pa todos desde houston texas.

@ Gadejo, nobody here is an expert on cartels. Unless you are currently in a cartel, you have no idea what they do or how they are doing it. What we see are the symptoms,and we speculate on the rest.

We know what the cartels want us to know, no more no less. They control most of the Mexican media. If anyone here tells you they are an expert, or even hints at it, dismiss it.

Its up to you to make up your mind on what's going on by evaluating what information is available to you. What you believe is going on is unique to you, and wont be a truth for anyone else, nor should they seek to influence how you make up your mind.

5:23 You fack up, el parrandero resuscitated...by now everybody is bigger than la nacha, so what, the old timers knew better than systematically initiating innocent school children and their brothers and sisters into addiction to satisfy their facking greed, and the old timers were really needy and hungry, they did not have billions of daddy's dollars to work with...

I beg to differ 9:44. Pablo went to war with his sicarios and he put in his own work. When Chapo's and Mayo's people go to war those two are hundreds of miles away from the danger. When has those two ever strapped up with their hitmen to pay their enemy a visit??....never!!! People feared Pablo not his men because they knew Pablo didn't fuck around. How do I know this? My wife's paternal grandfather was raised with the Acostas. Her grandfather was godfather to many of the old school Ojinaga mafioso. I remember abuelo telling stories of how Pablo was still alive and that he faked his own death because he spoke to him recently. We knew it wasn't true because her grandfather had dementia before he passed away. El Zorro de Ojinaga was the real deal. He opened up the cocaine pipeline through West Texas and that's why he was assassinated.

Nothing against newcomers, GADEJO, the more the better. It's the noisy, arrogant types that are a pain, the ones that don't get the seat at the grown-up's table means shut up, lose the High-Five-ing each other on bb como la parandada de salameros que son long enough to learn a couple things. Too many agendas for that tho

I watched a documentary where Terrence Poppa said that before Pablo Acosta downfall that he liked to smoke Marlboro reds mixed with crack cocaine !! The documentary also said that when he was killed he went out with two AR-15's blazing away at the Mexican federal police and that Amado Carrillo Feuntes was the man behind Pablo's death I wonder if there was any truth to that story ?

Google books, comments, articles... about El Zorro de Ojinaga and make up your own report...by some strange "karma", the guy who led the last attack on pablo acosta, guiermo gonzalez calderoni got murdered somewhere in texas, "surrounded by the good friends he made on the US side" specially on law enforcement, like the FBI and DEA, FOR OUTING CARLOS SALINAS DE GORTARI'S BUSINESS...

Effectively, Poppa changed a lot of things Otis = half of his book (if not more) is a lie. It's good you write articles based on other books/articles you have read about it; however, you shouldn't specify that under the comments section, but along your article. Otherwise, you are pretending all of this is true. (Not everyone will read the comments section). Just keep in mind.

A many pronged operation, Escobar, Lehder, Gacha through the gulf of mexico to florida, eastern mexico, colombia, Sam giancanna in morelos state for a while, to sinaloa, chihuahua, cd juarez, to califa, texas, arizona, chicago, new york...but when things got hot for reals it was florida, texas, arkansas, with air america, tesa, el señor de los cielos, and the crime family bush, while Ronnie slobbered asleep in Nancy's lap...more than a hundred indictments for criminals working for the Reagan regime, more than any other president ever, all of them "ghwb crime family"...all presidential pardoned...--even peña nieto can't match that corruption...

Yes its unfortunate that they are harassing the population of La Tuna. Chapo certainly learnt many lessons from Pablo Acosta and the way he ran his plaza.

La Tuna is like towns around Ojinaga, just substitute Culiacan. Chapo is the benefactor there, just as Pablo was in Ojinaga. Far too many official and un-official halcones there for Chapo to be captured in that area.

I think they are just oppressing the population because they want to try and piss El Chapo off so he gets angry and makes a mistake that gives away his location.

Well my dad is telling me that most of the story on the arevalo story is not true. Fermin had the plaza way before pablo. Pablo actually worked for Fermin at one point. When fermin was released he decided not to be in the drug game anymore. That's when pablo got the plaza. And the feud was because of the horse race. After the horse race was when lili was shot. Also at one point the fontes family was suppose to kill pablo because they had killed a couple of their cousins. That a group of about sicarios landed in fermins ranch to go ambush pablo at one of his houses but since they were planning an all out attack including killing women and children fermin didnt approve of it and didnt tell them where pablo lived. Another thing that my dad mentions is amador levario picked up pablo about 3 times and the only reason he didnt kill pablo was because amadors mother didnt let him kill pablo since she pablo since he was young

Chivis has been ill on and off for a while, but she is tough as old boots, and is a fighter, to the very core of her being. Even when she is in hospital she will have her ipad close, and she will log in an read and moderate comments when she can.

There was an explosion of black tar heroin on the West Coast in the 1970's, and my dad says it was around in the 1960's in Arizona and Texas. It just couldn't compete in the East Coast cities with Colombian brown and Persian white.

Nobody could compete with Air America's heroin and whatever from SE asia, vietnam, laos, cambodia...by the plane loads, forgettabout "body bags"...--when that dried up, they had South America ready with cocaine, murders, state coups, colombia red, caribbean islands paradise islands, and disco, mucho disco, from autralia to europe, to brasil Copacabanna and GENERAL ARNOLDO OCHOA ready to plead guilty to save the castros asses...--sinaloa black tar countz for about as many fly shits...

1:28, 107 Comments posted, 100 more waiting and 1000 trashed because of petty jealousies about who loves chivis more...12:18 one asshole against the tide, priceless worthlesness, basta?"say no más" dumbass...

330 kilos of blow confiscated in a warehouse in monterrey.who do ya think this load belonged to as it was not cds territory?my guess is alot of blood will be shed after that loss.there was also a big load in AICM and another in sonora both well over 200 keys.seems the drug war is failing.these dope dealers keep pushing serious weight.

Huh? "The Labyrinth of Solitude," is a psycho-mythic history of Mexican political culture. It explains Mexican history/culture, painting with a very broad brush. It's a superb book for anyone looking to understand Mexico, but for trying to explain the rise of a narco - that's stretching it a bit.

I've read a half dozen of Paz's non-fiction works. His biography of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is one of the best books written on Mexico, and probably the best book ever written on colonial Mexico. I consider Paz a Mexican Solzhenitsyn. The views of the two on the big picture are quite similar.

That is about 2 000 pages, fack it.read a summary, and skip to the last ten pages...--graviel garcia marquez never should have gone to school or had a Nobel prize had it not been necessary to promote culombia and evrrything culombian...

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded for a body of work over a lifetime, not one particular work.

For the record, Paz was awarded the prize in 1990: "for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity."

García Márquez was awarded the prize in 1982: "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts."

The Pulitzer Prize, awarded in a variety of arts, is awarded for one particular work.

@ 8:59 and 10:44. Sometimes a particular work might be cited as an example of an author's work as a whole, but the Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded for a body of work over a lifetime. In fact, this is so much the case, that individual works are very rarely mentioned. The Latin American authors listed above are two examples. Again, the contrast with the Pulitzer Prize is illustrative.

@TheDailyReaderI found my source. In Russell's autobiography he says he was awarded the nobel price in literature for his book Marriage and Morals. In his later years he was known to not let facts get in the way of him telling a good story.

Amador levario kidnapped pablo once i also heard he kidnapped amado carrillo. Amador levario was killed in a shoot out south of camargo Chihuahua he had a federal agent with him that he was holding for ransom. There's alot of big fish in Chihuahua but most of them operated independent just paid the plaza boss to pass loads this was until amado Carrillo died. A trafficker would pay 1000 dollars a kilo of cocaine for protection.

I know an Old man that lives somewhere close to Oklahoma that used to be a gunman for Pablo he used to prepare the cigarettes for him and yes Pablo was a killer but he was a good person to the people in need never killed an innocent person so this man said.

Would you (any of you locals) regard Acosta as a social bandit or just another narcotraficante. ie-Do you think the local community regarded him as a hero - someone who did more good for the community than bad?

this may be odd considering the comments are fairly dated but Fermin was my grandfather and I'm working on writing about his rise and demise. it was cool and validating to see others might find it interesting. The shoot out happened a few days after I was born so I've always had a connection to him.